USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > Athens > A history of old Tioga Point and early Athens, Pennsylvania > Part 8
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"The Cayugas seem now to have felt the greatest enmity toward the An- dastes, also fear; it is recorded by Dr. Beauchamp that in 1667 they now had some villages north of lake Ontario which were safe from the Andastes. The Andaste war now became a war of inroads and skirmishes, under which the weaker party gradually wasted away, though it still won occasional victories.
"In the fall of 1669 the Andastes after defeating the Cayugas, offered peace but the Cayugas put their ambassador and his nephew to death, after retaining him five or six months12-the Oneidas at this time sent some Andaste prisoners to Cayugas with forty wampum belts to maintain the war. At this time, 1670, the great war chief of the Susquehannas was one styled Hochitagete, or the bare-footed; and raving women and crafty medicine men deluded the Iroquois with promises of his capture and execution at the stake; a famous medicine man of Oneida appeared after death to order his body to be taken up and in- terred on the trail leading to the Susquehannas, as the only means of saving the Oneidas from ruin. Toward the summer of 1672 a body of forty Cayugas descended the Susquehanna in canoes, and twenty Senecas went by land to attack the enemy in their fields; but a band of sixty Andaste or Susquehanna boys, the oldest not over sixteen, known as Burnt-knives or Soft Metals because as yet they had taken no scalps, though fierce, attacked the Senecas and routed them, killed one brave and took another prisoner. Flushed with victory, they pushed on to attack the Cayugas, and defeated them also, killing eight and wounding more."
Indeed, they were reported by Dablon, the Jesuit, to have come home half dead with gashes of knives and hatchets, and he adds :
"May God preserve the Andastes and prosper their arms, that the Iroquois may be humbled-none but they can curb the pride of the Iroquois."
12 The Iroquois, in revenge for the burning of their warriors in the fort, embraced every opportunity to capture and burn the Andaste girls and women, as related by the Jesuits. In 1667 four women were burned at the stake at Oneida; in 1668 a "Gandastogué" girl at Onondoga. And there were continued chance allusions to such prisoners up to 1673.
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SUBJUGATION OF THE ANDASTES
But their only strength now lay in their fierce courage, for at this time they were reduced by war and the ravages of smallpox to only 300 warriors, and were soon overthrown. While there is, unfortu- nately, no definite account of their final subjugation, the Jesuits, in the Relations of 1675, tell of the pride of the Iroquois since the defeat of the Andastes after a continuous struggle of fourteen years.
Extermination.
Egle says :
"In 1675 according to the Relations Inèdites and Colden, the tribe was completely overthrown, but unfortunately we have no details whatever as to the. forces which effected it, or the time or the manner of their utter defeat. The remnant, too proud to yield to those with whom they had long contended as equals, and, by holding the land of their fathers by sufferance, to acknowledge themselves subdued; yet too weak to withstand the victorious Iroquois, forsook the river bearing their name, taking up a position on the western boundaries of Maryland, near the Piscataways. Shortly after they were accused of the mur- der of some settlers, apparently slain by the Senecas."
Beauchamp says that in 1677 a party of Oneidas, Onondogas and Senecas went south, killed some Susquehannas and took some prisoners. They were probably the marauding party.
"After this accusation of murder the Susquehannocks sent five of their chiefs to the Maryland and Virginia troops, under Col. John Washington, who went out in pursuit. Although coming as deputies, and showing the Baltimore medal and certificate of friendship, these chiefs were cruelly put to death. The enraged Susquehannas then began a terrible border war, which was kept up until their utter destruction."
Some writers say that later they were allowed to return to their old country and settle on Conestoga Creek, as a tributary outpost of the Iroquois, and were subsequently known as Conestogas, and so men- tioned in treaties. The handful of Conestoga Indians murdered a hundred years later by an infuriated mob were supposed to be their descendants.
While the Mohawks had been such bitter foes it is worthy of note that in 1675, when the Senecas wished to exterminate the remnant of Andastes, the Mohawks said they were their brothers and children, and might live with them. Colden says that the Iroquois removed a portion of them to a location higher up. These may have been the Onontiogas mentioned in the Jesuit Relations, 1670, Chapter IX.
In Deed Book VI, 28, in the Secretary's office, Albany, is a com- mission to Col. Coursey, from the Governor of Maryland, dated 30th April, 1677, in which it is stated that :
"The said Susquehannos have lately desired to come to a Treaty of Peace with his said Lordship (Baltimore), and have (as I am informed) since ye said Overture submitted themselves to, and putt themselves under the protection of the Cinnigos (Senecas) or some other natyon of Indyans residing to ye North- ward of this Province."
It would hence appear that their conquest occurred about 1676.
The following letter of Sir Edmund Andros to the Governor of Maryland is self-explanatory :
"I writt to you lately by a Ketch of this place, giving you an Accot. of my return from Albany, & state of things here, & of my engaging Maquas & Sin- nekes, not anyways to injure any Christians to the Eastward, & particularly in
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OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS
yor parts Southward, in their Warrs with the Susquehanna's; but others appre- hending it would bee difficult to restrain those People, especially Young Men, when soe farr abroad, & Opportunityes, I did endeavour to bee rightly informed of things relating to that Warr, & found that the Susquehanna's being reputed by the Maques of their Off-Spring, that they might be brought to joine Peace or Concorporate again, and soe take away the Occasion of those Mischiefs or Inroads, though I find find still the Sinneques wholly adverse to it; desiring their Extirpacon, but hearing now of Indyan Troubles wch. hath lately occasion- ed raising forces in yor parts, I have sent the Bearer expresse to wait on you herewith; And if it bee by the Maques or Sinneques againe to offer you my Ser- vice according to my former and this Letter, which I hope & beleeve may be effectuall, if taken in time. And therefore pray yor Answer & Resolves as soon as may bee : And if you think good would desire some from the Susquehannas to come to mee as soon as can bee, that so I may Order Matters accordingly. Wee are (I thank God) very quiet, not the least stirr or Attempt on any part of the Government. However have made all fitting Preparation for all Events. I am Sr Yor Most Humble Servant
"N. Yorke Octobr 21st 1675." (From N. Y. Colonial Doc.)
"E. ANDROS."
In 1695 one hundred Senecas and Cayugas were reported as going against the Andastes (in ignorance of the cessation of hostil- ities). About 1700 Governor Penn bought land of the Conestogas, to which the Iroquois assented, which indicates that at the conquest they were allowed to retain some of their Susquehanna lands. In 1709 an important council was held at Conestoga, the governor being present. In 1712 the Conestogas were at war with the Tuscaroras and other southern Indians, having taken the English side. August, 1722, an important council was held with the Indians at Albany, the Governor of Pennsylvania being present. At this time the Five Nations acknowl- edged the sales of land made by the Conestogas; the latter, however, claimed that the Five Nations, as a body, had no title to Susquehanna lands, and, indeed, that only the Cayugas claimed them, and they (Conestogas) wished the matter settled.13 This surely indicates that the Andastes were not forced to relinquish all of their territory. A Seneca chief said the Susquehannocks had a right to sell their lands until their conquest in 1677. The Governor of Pennsylvania told the other governors that the Conestogas spoke the same language as the Five Nations, but paid them tribute. At the Lancaster treaty of 1744 (as related by Colden) the speech of the Deputies of the Six Nations contained this interesting remark :
"We don't remember that we have been conquered by the Great King (of England) or employed by him to conquer others. We do remember we were employed by Maryland to conquer the Conestogas, and that the second time we were at war with them we carried them all off."
In December, 1794, the famous Joseph Brant, in writing to Colonel Pickering concerning former Indian possessions, said :
"The whole Five Nations have an equal right one with another, the country having been obtained by their joint exertions, in war with a powerful nation, formerly living south of Buffalo Creek called Eries, and another nation then living at Tioga Point; so that by our successes all the country between that and the Mississippi became the joint property of the Five Nations."
13 Dr. Beauchamp says that some Cayugas went to Pennsylvania in 1723 to settle the matter, and many chiefs to the council at Stenton in 1736 with the same purpose.
51
THE ANDASTES, SPANISH HILL
The Eries were conquered about 1654. Must not the "nation at Tioga Point" have been some branch of the Andastes? Alas, that Brant was not more explicit.
Certain it seems to be that the Andastes, remarkable, brave and fierce to an unusual degree, were finally compelled to succumb to the "Romans of America," the Iroquois, leaving no definite record of the occupation and abandonment of their numerous towns on the upper Susquehanna, nor of their final subjugation. It has surely been an error, however, to assert that they were destroyed before the use of firearms, as these foregoing pages show that they had the use of them about forty years before their disappearance. The Dutch sold fire- arms only to the Iroquois it is said, but the Andastes obtained them from the Swedes and English. Surely their town sites should receive careful attention from those interested in archæology and ethnology; there may then be many secrets yet to be revealed.14
"Ye say that all have passed away. the noble and the brave; That their light canoes have vanished from off the crested wave. That 'mid the forest where they roamed there rings no hunter's shout, But their name is on your waters, ye may not wash it out ; Their memory liveth on your hills, their baptism on your shore, Your ever living waters speak their dialect of yore."
SPANISH HILL, FROM SOUTHEAST
Spanish Hill, Location, Description, Origin, Occupation, Name and Traditions.
Of the many points of historic interest in our valley, perhaps none has attracted more attention or roused more speculation, from the ear- liest times to the present, than the mound called Spanish Hill. This prominence is due not only to its unusual position (isolated from the hill ranges of the regions), but also to its odd outline, the remains of fortifications on the top, and its present name. Its outline is called by man a "truncated cone," and by woman "a scalloped cake tin turned upside down."
14 Considerable attention has been given to the Andastes by Prof. Guss (see Hist. Reg- ister, Vol. I, page 165). He says it is claimed that the chief town of the Sasquesahannocks was always near the mouth of the Conestoga Creek. But he also mentions other sites as near Conewago Falls and at the mouth of the Octoraro, and thinks it impossible to exactly locate the town designated by Smith. Professor Guss gives the Andastes or Sasquesahanockes the name Brook-stream-landers or Spring-Water-Stream-Region-People.
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OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS
Spanish Hill stands out from the encircling hill ranges, at the head of the plain where the two valleys converge, about five miles above the point of union of the rivers, within sight of the town of Waverly, New York, although it is in old Athens Township, Penn- sylvania. A fair idea of its location may be obtained from the frontis- piece of this volume (though it only appears as a small mound) ; the artist, however, has placed it too far from the Chemung River. The hill has an elevation of about 230 feet above the plain, and 280 feet above the river level, but seems much higher.
One may be amply repaid for ascending it by the superb view of both river valleys and their hill boundaries. It is impossible to picture this either by pen or camera. A recent visit on a summer morning, when the sky was full of fleeting clouds, revealed an exquisite pan- orama of hill and valley softened by cloud shadows ; and one might say in the valley at one's feet lay groups of trees almost like stretches of forest ; for so, in summer, appear the sister towns of Athens, Sayre and Waverly. Even the brush of an artist could not faithfully depict this lovely landscape, because it stretches out on every side. No better place can be imagined from which to study certain physiographic or geological features of the valley, and it is often the resort of some teachers with classes of students in physical geography. It seems, indeed, a worthy height to be crowned, as has been lightly suggested, by an Acropolis, or even a temple to the Sun-God.
Another vivid impression, but of the works of man rather than nature, is obtained by pacing around the brow of the hill and realizing the great labor involved in the erection of such extensive breastworks (perhaps a mile in length), in a day when the spade, pick, etc., were unknown. The hill is 1,000 feet above sea level. In outline it is won- derfully symmetrical on three sides, with regular depressions running down from a nearly level top, which is about eleven acres in extent. This is the view shown on page fifty-one. At the north, however, it is very irregular, as will be seen in a later picture. While, to the in- habitants of the valley it has always seemed unique, similar elevations, though less prominent in position, may be observed near Barton, Union, Elmira and in the Cohocton and Genesee Valleys, all of which are doubtless relics of the great Ice Age, and in many cases fortified by the Indians.
The earliest recorded description is doubtless that of the Duke Rochefoucault de Liancourt, a French traveler of 1795, who, en route to Niagara, saw the hill and thus wrote of it:
"Near the confines of Pennsylvania a mountain rises from the bank of the river Tioga (Chemung) in the shape of a sugar loaf upon which are seen the remains of some intrenchments. These the inhabitants call the Spanish Ram- parts, but I rather judge them to have been thrown up against the Indians in the time of M. de Nonville.1 One perpendicular breastwork is yet remaining,
1 According to Documentary Hist. N. Y., Vol. I, the Marquis de Nonville was sent over by the French King with instructions to do all in his power to establish the French colony, now known as Canada. In pursuit of this object in 1685 or 1687 he led an expedi- tion against the Iroquois into the Genesee country, and though he waged quite a war, and threw up some earthworks, we find nothing to warrant the supposition that he penetrated as far as this valley with his troops. A fortification at East Bloomfield, Genesee Valley, is at- tributed to him; also at Victor, Ontario County.
53
ORIGIN OF SPANISH HILL
which, though covered over with grass and bushes, plainly indicates that a par- apet and a ditch have been constructed here."
Probably the next record is that of Alexander Wilson, the cele- brated ornithologist, who wrote a long poem entitled the "Foresters," descriptive of his journey from Philadelphia, along the Susquehanna, in 1804. After describing the location of Athens, he continues :
"Now to the left the ranging mountains bend And level plains before us wide extend ; Where rising lone, old Spanish Hill appears The post of war in ancient unknown years. Its steep and rounding sides with woods embrowned,
Its level top with old intrenchments crowned ; Five hundred paces thrice we measured o'er, Ere all its circling boundaries we explore,
Now overgrown with woods alone it stands,
And looks abroad o'er open fertile lands."
Origin.
As to the origin or formation of Spanish Hill it has ever been a matter of conjecture; but the general impression has been that it is artificial, or partially so. It seems, unlike the neighboring hills, to have no rocky foundations, and to be built up of a mixture of clay, gravel and loose boulders-a fact that has always lent color to the theory of its artificial formation. It has been generally attributed to the Mound Builders, that strange race who raised huge earthworks, carefully shaped in designs so enduring that their age can only be guessed. Many of these mounds (used as places of sepulchre) have been found in the great river valleys of the west, but also in the river valleys are many natural formations which rival the work of the Mound Builders in regularity of outline and apparent design. The writer was particularly impressed with this fact when traveling through the so-called Bad Lands of the Yellow Stone Valley. The glamor which had always surrounded Spanish Hill sank into insignificance, when, during nearly two days of travel by rail, counterparts of our hill continually came to view. And yet the level top and regularly scalloped sides do suggest that at least it was modelled to its present dignified and graceful outlines by patient toiling hands.
Those who have studied it in the past century have found it a knotty problem. Judge Charles P. Avery made a careful survey and examination in 1835, and embodied the results in a paper read at the Old Settlers' Meeting in Athens in 1854.2 His conclusions as to its formation were correct, yet made little impression on those who came after. In 1872 Dr. Bullock, of Smithfield, wrote a somewhat lengthy article as to his theories, closing by saying :
"There is no harm in the indulgence of a passing thought that Spanish Hill was constructed by men long before the discovery of America by Columbus."
Sidney Hayden, in the first Athens newspaper (the Scribe), June, 1842, began a proposed series of essays on the geology of Tioga Point. He described Spanish Hill, but never continued the sketches, and gave
2 Published in the St. Nicholas, a monthly magazine printed at Owego in 1853 and '54- few copies now in existence.
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OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS
no theory of formation. The name has given rise to the conjecture that the mound was raised by Spaniards.
Examination of the formation easily disposes of the Mound Builder theory, and it goes without saying that no Spanish force of sufficient size ever could have reached this valley and left so slight a record. It would have required a great number of people a long time to accomplish such a work, and could hardly have been possible with a passing expedition like the French or possibly Spanish.
An amusing account of Spanish Hill, and ingenious theory of its origin, is found in Priest's "American Antiquities," page 251, pub- lished in 1833. Having attributed certain old fortifications (said by Humboldt and others to have been found in Canada) to the Scandi- navians, he. continues :
"There are the remains of one of these efforts of Scandinavian defence situated on a hill of singular form on the great sand plain between the Susque- hannah and Chemung rivers, near their junction. The hill is entirely isolated, about 2 mile in circumference and more than 100 ft. high, supposed to be arti- ficial, and to belong to ancient nations. However the inhabitants around it do not believe it artificial, on account of large stones on its sides, too heavy to have been placed there by man. On the surrounding plain are many deep holes of 20 or 30 rods circumference, and 20 ft. deep, favoring a belief that from them the earth was scooped to form the hill with .- But whether the hill be artificial or not, there are on its top the remains of a wall, formed of earth, stone and wood, which runs round the whole, exactly on the brow .- Within is a deep ditch or entrenchment, running round the whole summit; from this it is evident a war was once waged here. And were we to conjecture, we should say, be- tween the Indians and the Scandinavians; and that this fortification is of same class as those about Onondoga (Syracuse), Auburn and the lakes. As it is known the Scandinavians did not make settlements earlier than 985, there cannot be a doubt but they had to fight their way among the Indians more or less."
The rest of this chapter, dwelling on relics that were. possibly Scandinavian, certainly goes far afield in conjecture, and is very aston- ishing. The ingenious author does not suggest how the tons of earth may have been conveyed from the pond holes of the plains to Spanish Hill.
About thirty years ago General John S. Clark examined the hill and suggested the correct theory of formation, to which few in this locality gave heed. At this time a local geological war was waged in the columns of the Waverly Advocate, presumably between Sidney Hayden and W. F. Warner. Nothing accurate resulted from this. It is only within the last ten years that a local geologist (Mr. Isaac P. Shepard) has come forward with the scientific theory for the origin of the hill. Having had opportunity to investigate the formation, dur- ing extensive cuts made by the railroad, he was able to positively pro- nounce the hill a natural curiosity, the theory of formation being ex- plained on a sound scientific basis, as General Clark had already suggested.
It may, however, be remarked that Robert Howell, long a corre- spondent of the Smithsonian Institute, had propounded the same theory in print.3 It is high time to abandon all foolish conjectures as to the
3 See Hist. Tioga County, N. Y. Howell says: "Spanish hill is a moraine composed of round stones of all the shales from size of quart bowl down to half that size, appearing as if broken up for a great road. Around north side are several large pot holes."
55
SPANISH HILL A MORAINE
origin of the hill. Mr. Shepard embodied his impressions in a paper written for the Tioga Point Historical Society in 1898, of which use is here made by his permission. Having first given a brief description of the Ice Age and action of glaciers (as made known to the world by Prof. Agassiz), he goes on to prove that Spanish Hill is part of a terminal moraine, saying :
"The true terminal moraine of the Continental ice sheet crossed the Sus- quehanna valley at the extreme southern point below Wilkes-Barré. But, during the decline of the Ice age when the front of the ice sheet was retreating north- ward, it paused long enough at several points to leave considerable deposits which are known as Moraines of Retrocession, which usually consist of a tumultuous assemblage of sharp gravel and boulder ridges with steep knolls, and also deep depressions called kettleholes."
According to the map made by G. F. Wright,4 it is evident that the first moraine of retrocession crossed this valley somewhere near the State line, and it was easily recognized by Mr. Shepard in the gravel ridges of Ellistown, the kettle holes near Hayden's Corners, and Spanish Hill, which is probably the most unique feature of this moraine. It may also be called more familiarly a "drift mound," many of which are to be observed near the line of termination of the glaciers. The reader will more fully understand the origin by reading the geological observations in the first chapter, the sources of which have here been repeated to emphasize the truth of the origin of the hill. Prof. Tarr, being questioned, replied5 that while he has not spent much time on the hill, he considers it:
"A morainic deposit, formed marginal to the ice, in standing water;6 de- posited when the glacier was receding from this region. It has been trimmed somewhat, both by the modern Chemung and by a little creek which comes down from the north, so that it is only a remnant of its former self, size and shape, however it would be rather difficult to assign to this its exact origin, as to the specific manner of accumulation since the cause (ice) which produced it is now gone."
Dr. Frederic Corss (from his boyhood recollections) included a de- scription of Spanish Hill in a paper on the drift mounds of the Sus- quehanna, in which he thinks that there was a rock core which held the hill in place when the valleys were washed out. No investigation has proven this, but Dr. Corss has given such a vivid picture of prob- able happenings that it may assist to an understanding. He says :
"The glacier which covered the watershed of the upper Susquehanna has retreated under increasing warmth as far as Southern New York. The whole region is swept by an enormous torrent of water, loaded with mud, ice and boulders. Confined by the narrow gorge from Ulster to Towanda the descend- ing flood is checked. Perhaps the narrow pass is obstructed by real inland ice- bergs. So the swift, onward rush is stopped, and the whole valley of Athens becomes a somewhat tranquil lake, the water flowing over the tops of the lower surroundings hills, as is still evident from water grooving in many places. The cobblestones and coarse gravel settle first at the head of the valley, and the fine sediment and sand at the lower part. The stratified sediment gradually be- comes deeper until the whole valley is silted up to the level of top of Spanish Hill. After years the great flood subsides, the winter freezing is less severe, the ice gorge (at Ulster) gives way; the waters sweep through their present channels and slowly carry with them the drift material which has filled the
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